Teachers, parents hold rolling budget rallies

Low-key protests stress to communities impact of proposed cuts

Kindergarten teacher Allison Carpenter gets a hug from student Kate MacDonald, 6, who sandwiches her brother Will MacDonald between them, outside La Jolla Elementary School Thursday morning. The rally was the first of the day and one of more than two dozen recently at various schools to protest proposed budget cuts.
— Peggy Peattie

Kindergarten teacher Allison Carpenter gets a hug from student Kate MacDonald, 6, who sandwiches her brother Will MacDonald between them, outside La Jolla Elementary School Thursday morning. The rally was the first of the day and one of more than two dozen recently at various schools to protest proposed budget cuts.
— Peggy Peattie

San Diego  The San Diego teachers union has taken its show on the road.

Labor leaders have launched a citywide tour of “rolling rallies” at campuses throughout the San Diego Unified School District, garnering hundreds — sometimes thousands — of parents, students and teachers to join the protest of proposed cuts to public education.

Some 27 rallies have been held in the past three weeks, local demonstrations that have fostered a decidedly more intimate climate than the typical protests staged at the school district headquarters.

“We’re trying to get away from this idea that the union is this third-party that just deals with the district,” said Rafal Dobrowolski, a labor specialist for the San Diego Education Association, which represents more than 7,000 teachers in the district. “This is a way for us to put a face on layoffs in the communities that would be affected.”

Last month San Diego Unified issued 1,335 pink slips to educators — including one in six teachers. A few hundred will be rescinded due to changes in the district’s budget plan, but some schools would still see massive turnovers in their facilities next year if the layoffs are issued.

About 75 percent of teachers at Memorial Preparatory for Athletes and Scholars in Logan Heights were given layoff warnings. Maria Mejia, who attended a rally on Thursday at Memorial on behalf of her daughter, can’t imagine such a scenario. A similar rally was held earlier at La Jolla Elementary School.

“I didn’t know it was that bad,” said Mejia, who said she works 60 hours a week and tries to keep up with local politics. “This school has been getting better. That many layoffs would change it. This is not fair.”

Layoffs would help offset a projected $114 million shortfall to next year’s $2.04 billion district operating budget. The school board has called for $50 million in additional preliminary cuts in anticipation of an even larger deficit. District officials say they may have little choice, given the dire state of the state budget.

San Diego teachers union President Bill Freeman said many parents, like Mehia, are still in the dark about the grim education scenarios.

“When parents drop their kids off at school, all is well with their world,” he said. “This is a way for us to support teachers at the sites and reach out to parents.”

The union’s new strategy to travel the district to garner support for its cause harkens back to the “massive mobilization” of labor in the early part of the last century, said John Rogers, director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

“Part of the challenge for teachers union advocates is to be able to communicate the message that these budget cuts matter, not ‘just because of my job,’ but because the quality of teaching and learning for your child is in jeopardy,” Rogers said. “These ongoing rallies may have a potential effect in educating the broader public about what is happening to public schools.”